Editing Bugger (section)

==Usage==

=== Noun ===
In some [[English speaking]] communities the word has been in use traditionally without any profane connotations. For instance, within the [[Anglo-Indian]] community in India the word ''bugger'' has been in use, in an affectionate manner, to address or refer to a close friend or fellow schoolmate. In the United States it can be a rough synonym to [[wikt:whippersnapper|whippersnapper]] as in calling a young boy a "little bugger".<ref>For an example of this inoffensive usage, see [http://www.gigglepoetry.com/autobiography/autobio.html "A Partially True Autobiography"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090328190725/http://www.gigglepoetry.com/autobiography/autobio.html |date=2009-03-28 }} by Bruce Lansky</ref>

In 1978, [[Mr Justice]] [[Sir Melford Stevenson]], [[Queen's Counsel|QC]] was reprimanded for calling the British [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]] a "buggers' charter".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3706939.stm|title=Are judges politically correct?|work=BBC News|first=Finlo|last=Rohrer|date=12 May 2004|quote=The well-known judge was once reprimanded by the lord chancellor for calling the Sexual Offences Act 1967 a "buggers' charter".}}</ref>

===Verb===
As a verb, the word is  used in Commonwealth English to denote sodomy. In Great Britain, the phrase "Bugger me sideways" (or a variation of this) can be used as an expression of surprise. It can also be used as a [[synonym]] for "broken", as in "This PC's buggered" (similar to the verb ''[[Brick (electronics)|bricked]]''); "Oh no! I've buggered it up"; or "It's gone to buggery". In Anglophone Southern Africa, Australia, Canada and Britain, "buggered" is colloquially used to describe something, usually a machine or vehicle, as broken.

The phrase "bugger off" (''bug off'' in [[American English]]{{citation needed|date=May 2013}}) means to go, or run, away; when used as a command it means "go away" ("get lost" or "leave me alone") and can also be used in much the same type of relatively offensive manner.

"I'm buggered", "I'll be buggered" and "bugger me" are used [[colloquial]]ly in Great Britain (and often in New Zealand and Australia as well) to denote or feign surprise at an unexpected (or possibly unwanted) occurrence. "I'm buggered" can also be used to indicate a state of fatigue. In this latter form it found fame in New Zealand in 1956 through rugby player Peter Jones, who—in a live post-match radio interview—declared himself "absolutely buggered", a turn of phrase considered shocking at the time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edenparkresidents.org.nz/newsdisplay.asp?id=52|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081014095831/http://www.edenparkresidents.org.nz/newsdisplay.asp?id=52|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 14, 2008|title=For more than a century it has been a Garden of Eden ablaze with sporting colour...|publisher=Eden Park Residents Association|first=Kevin|last=Norquay|date=November 11, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/southlandtimes/4689466a26572.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120920004539/http://www.stuff.co.nz/southlandtimes/4689466a26572.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 September 2012|title=If you wish upon a star, make sure you are awake|date=11 September 2008|work=[[The Southland Times]]|access-date=22 September 2011}}</ref>

It is famously alleged that the last words of [[George V of the United Kingdom|King George V]] were "Bugger [[Bognor Regis|Bognor]]", in response to a suggestion that he might recover from his illness and visit Bognor Regis.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/3764523.stm|title=When Bognor earned its 'Regis'|date=1 June 2004|work=BBC News online|access-date=19 March 2018|language=en-GB}}</ref> Variations on the phrase "bugger it" are commonly used to imply frustration, admission of defeat or the sense that something is not worth doing, as in "bugger this for a lark" or "bugger this for a game of [[tin soldier|soldiers]]".

===Interjection===
As an interjection, "bugger" is sometimes used as a single-word expletive. "Buggeration" is a derivation occasionally found in British English.

As with many expletives,{{citation needed|date=July 2015}} its continued use has reduced its shock value and offensiveness. Thus the [[Toyota]] car company in Australia and [[New Zealand]] ran a popular series of advertisements where "Bugger!"<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.adnews.com.au/news/a-step-back-in-time-30-years-of-great-advertising|title=A step back in time - 30 years of great advertising|last=Rudder|first=Gawen|date=24 March 2017|work=AdNews|access-date=18 March 2018|language=en}}</ref> was the only spoken word (with exception of an utterance of "bugger me!") (frequently repeated); they then ran a censored version of the ad in which "Bugger!" was bleeped out, as a joke against those who spoke out against the ad claiming it was offensive. The term is generally not used in the United States, but it is recognised, although inoffensive there. It is also used in Canada more frequently than in the United States but with less stigma than in other parts of the world. In the [[Watershed (television)|pre-watershed]] television version of ''[[Four Weddings and a Funeral]]'' the opening sequence is modified from repeated exclamations of "[[fuck|Fuck!]]" by [[Hugh Grant]] and [[Charlotte Coleman]] when they are late for the first wedding to repeated exclamations of "Bugger!".